Blog Assignment 2

Did you know by Karl Fisch and Scott Mcleod

This video had a lot of interesting statistics about the technological explosion. Obviously
if the top 10 in-demand jobs today didn't exist 5 years ago, those jobs are due to advances and
opportunities related to technology. Technology has definitely brought changes to the way our society functions, many for the better, some maybe not so good. The video also brought up some interesting questions in my mind, such as how do we train someone for something that doesn't exist? Also, the number of jobs people will have and how many years people have been in their current job could be related to instability in the job market, job satisfaction, or just a lot of confused people who don't know what they want to do.
Many of the statistics shown in the video are not necessarily directly related to advances in technology. As mentioned, we live in an exponential world. Several of the statistics are comparing numbers (not percentages) of today's world with numbers from years past. I would think many of these numbers are in large part due to the world's booming population growth in recent years, which can rightly be attributed to medical advances, many technology related, and the aforementioned exponential factor.


Mr. Winkle

This video relates the culture shock of Mr. Winkle who awakens after a 100 year nap. He doesn't understand all the strange and amazing sites of the 21st century. He sees people working and even seeing people's faces on these strange machines. Eventually he wanders into a school. He seems to be reassured as he observes students taking notes about what the teacher is saying.
At least somethings haven't changed, he thinks. .
The vision of how much things have changed in the last 100 years is accurate, and many of the changes keep coming faster. Every generation has seen change (ie steam boats,horseless carriages, atomic bomb, man on the moon, etc) but there is no denying that many changes are coming faster than ever before. In some respects, education has also changed, partially due to
accessible technology and partially due to great increases in information. However, one thing that hasn't changed is no learning will take place unless the person actually wants to learn. This will remain true regardless of the advances in technology.



Ken Robinson says schools killing creativity

Mr. Robinson speaks about how he thinks our schools are killing the creativity of the children
through our accepted system of education. He believes all children are creative and that we educate the creativity out of the children. He made some good points on some things, but overall he didn't really change my mind about anything. He mentions a girl that can't sit still or focus very well in the classroom and its all OK because they discover that she likes to dance and put
her in a dance class. Does this mean she doesn't need to learn math or how to read?

I think it would be great if our schools could somehow be expanded to customize a curriculum to fit the talents of each individual but we all know that will never happen. In many cases, creativity probably is pushed aside so we can teach the 3 R's. John Lennon is a great example of
a not-so-great student whose creativity made him a legend. However, the cold fact remains that there are not a lot of John Lennons out there, most of us will never be famous, and will be forced to have a real job to survive. Children are not all creative and many are just unmotivated and lazy.



Cecelia Gault Interviews Sir Ken Robinson

This is a look at a young girl's blog post and the interview the post is based on. Cecelia
is a sweet and probably an intelligent girl and does a pretty good job of reflecting on the interview in her blog. Once again, I'm not sure how much I agree with Sir Ken. Maybe I'm just extremely cynical because I've been in the classroom and the school system and I see how things work.

He says there are 3 myths about creativity : only certain people are creative; creativity can not be taught; and creativity only involves certain things or fields, and believes and endorses the opposite of these. There are a number of ways to be creative (music, dance, architecture, graphic design, video game design, and others) and I'm sure that the basics of these can be taught but that doesn't mean you can teach real creativity. Everyone can create something, but can everyone create something that matters? Probably not.





Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

This video is about a teacher and students learning technology in a classroom setting. The students were learning similar things that we are learning in EDM 310, such as Twitter and blogging, among other aspects of technology. The teacher and the students alike seemed to be enthused about what was going on. It was nice seeing kids enjoying learning.

It appeared to me that the teacher was doing an excellent job and she made several good points.
She mentioned that she was teaching the students how to learn which is excellent and will be an
asset for these students all their lives. She also had the students teach about various forms of
technology which is a great way to really learn anything. Students today NEED to come out of high school with a firm grasp of the technology available and how to use many of them. I know some of us old folks are a bit resistant, but technology is everywhere and students today are going to live their entire lives surrounded by it.


















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